The Complete Guide to the Blighted Grove and Lady Melisande

Ultima Online to fight and has some of the best loot including the coveted PVP artifact, the Crimson Cincture. This guide will show you the easiest way to complete the quests to get access to Lady Melisande and everything you will need to know to kill her!

Location of the Blighted Grove: South of the Dungeon Shame, along the mountains at1° 34' South 52° 6' West in both Trammel and Felucca

Blighted Grove Lore & Description:

"One of the oldest trees in existence, the ancient Yew that is tied to Lady Melisande is twisted and grotesque. Too powerful to die in the swampy ground, as the others of its kind have, its mighty roots draw upon blighted soil to live. The immense trunk and squat shape tilts dangerously, with tangled mud clotted roots exposed along an entire third of its perimeter.

The tree leans precariously but endures, the poison of its needles and seeds bringing agonizing death to wildlife that wanders too near. Adventurers enter the blighted grove by passing under the exposed roots of the tree and work their way along the downed branches and the rotted out interior of the trunk. Every aspect of the Yew tree is poisonous and dangerous. Footing within the tree is precarious and with every fall and cut the character is exposed to another dose of the lethal poison.

Roosting in the revolting branches of the tree are hideous harpies. Changelings delight in tormenting characters, while Bog Things, Boglings, Corpsers, Whipping Vines, Swamp Tentacles, and Reapers are much in evidence. Giant serpents and monstrous hydras weave their way through branches and swampy ground. Enslaved and insane dryads and satyr serve Lady Melisande." UO Dungeons Mondain's Legacy, credit UO Herald

Getting In:

You need a bone machete to get inside the Blighted Grove. You can buy a bone machete from a player blacksmith who knows the recipe or a vendor. However, if you have a blacksmith, you can also complete the Vile Poison Quest Chain offered by Jamal the Fisherman to learn how to make your own bone machetes.

Bound To the Land Quest & How To Get to Lady Melisande

After you enter the cave entrance to the Blighted Grove, you will see a Frightened Dryad, standing south of the entrance. Talk to her and she will give you a quest called Bound to the Land. Accept the quest. Next you will need to kill 12 Insane Dryads. The insane dryads hide near the trees in the Blighted Grove and are invisible until you get close.

When you are close enough, the insane dryads will appear and attack you. Be careful as you search for the insane dryads because there are several difficult named monsters in this area and other creatures such as silver serpents that you don't want to fight. After you kill the twelve Insane Dryads, you will be ready to slay Saliva next. Also beware of the named monsters, which are paragon strength that lurk in the Blighted Grove.

Coil is a named silver serpant who lurks in the south west corner, he has lethal poison and mortal strike. If you slay him, you can turn in his fang as a quest item and receive rare alchemy recipes. Thrasher is a named crocodile who isn't very difficult; neither is Tangle the named bog thing. Avoid Abcess, the named hydra who wanders in the East side of the Blighted Grove, because it shoots out balls of fire which can kill you instantly.

Go up the cliff that is west of the entrance and you will enter a small cave that will have Saliva and two changelings. The room is toxic and will tell you that you can't breathe the air as your hit points are slowly drained away. You may want to lure the changelings off into the far corner, because they will keep respawning as you fight.

Saliva is not very strong; it is similar to a paragon stone harpy. If you are playing a tamer you can probably get away with having a greater dragon attack Saliva and ignoring the changelings. Once Saliva is dead, head to the exit which is on the east side of the cave. When you leave watch out for monsters that may be lurking on the other side.

Lady Melisande

You will need to have a party to kill Lady Melisande; to kill her fast bring 3 tamers with greater dragons and 3-4 ranged damage dealers such as archers, mages or necromancer mages. Sampires and melee fighters have a difficult time with Lady Melisande because she does alot of area of effect damage and hits hard!

Once you have a party ready to attack Lady Melisande, go into the Blighted Grove again and turn in the quest to the Frightened Dryad. The frightened dryad will give you the Dryad's Blessing, which you can drop into the basket to get three dryad's curses. Leave the cave and when your party is ready, use the dryad's curse and you will be teleported into Lady Melisande's lair.

Once you are inside Melisande's lair, you will want to carefully separate Melisande from the enslaved satyrs that guard her. Have your party stand near the ladder and carefully lure one satyr at a time, without luring Melisandre; invisibility spells, smoke bombs and potions all work well here.

Once the satyrs are dead you can attack Lady Melisande, if you have a necromancer in your party, it is a good idea for them to animate the dead satyrs because if the party doesn't Lady Melisande will. Lady Melisande uses powerful necromancy and area of effect spells, she also has the ability to inflict a debuff which will greatly reduce your character's swing speed and spell casting. If you are not melee stay as far away from her as you can! Tamers will need to heal by magery or spellweaving to keep their pets alive.

At half hit points she will summon another enslaved satyr, which needs to be slain immediately or it will create havoc on your party and discord everyone! Once Melisande is at 1/4^th hit points, drop the party so that everyone will have their own instance of the loot. When Melisande is almost dead she summons a reaper, stone harpy and an insane dryad, be ready! May the coveted crimson cincture be yours and happy Mel hunting!

Quests in the Blighted Grove for killing Named Monsters

The Reptilian Dentist - This quest is given by Danoel the Metal Weaver in Sanctuary. Slay Coil and get Coil's Fang. If you are already in the Blighted Grove you can kill Coil over and over, loot Coil's Fang and turn it in for the reward, repeatedly. The reward is a craftsman's satchel containing an alchemy recipe and a magic item.

Scale Armor - This Quest is given by Ahie the Clothweaver in Heartwood. Slay Thrasher and loot his tail. This quest also requires 10 hydra tails which presumably are from Abcess, the named hydra. The reward is a bag of treasure. Suggestion: Don't bother, Abcess is annoying.

A Tale of a Tail - Caila the Guard in Heartwood gives this quest. You must slay Abcess to get his tail, which you can redeem for a bag of treasure. Abcess is one of the most difficult monsters in the Blighted grove and can instantly kill you with a fireball which it blasts out of one of its many heads. Suggestion, skip this one.

Also See: http://Drmmo.com for the full guide with pictures